Listen, who doesn’t love dinosaurs? I’ve had several dino-joy posts already: Dino-joy crocheted toy; Dino-Rainbow Joy which included a dancing T-Rex sweater; and Dino Balaclavas – the clue is in the title for what to expect from that one.

I’m calling this a mashup cos I’m referring to this Dino Sweater pattern (Ravelry link) by Julie Jaeken (designer’s site), but once I downloaded it I found that I’d be seaming the sleeves in. The pics show a raglan so I was hopeful that wouldn’t be the case. After making my Pirate jumper I swore off picking up stitches for sleeves – I’m not incapable of it, but I don’t really enjoy it. So I’m also referring to the Panda Sweater pattern (Ravelry link) by Stine Hoelgaard (Hobbii link) that I’ve successfully made before.

As you can see, I’ve already finished a lot of this sweater. I’ve done both sleeves and body to the point where they all join up on one circular needle, and started the yoke. I intend to add a row of dinos in the yoke as well as the ones already round the bottom. The similar sizes of the dino and panda motif mean that it’ll all work out pretty nicely with regard to stitch count.
There will be a four stitch gap between two of the dinos, which I’ll align to the centre back. There’s already a six stitch gap there on the bottom row, which I added to get me a size somewhere between the two- and four-year sizes. Would it have been better to have small underarm gaps in the pattern? Yes, probably. Am I going back to change that? Absolutely not.

I’m using stash yarn yet again – Papatya in mushroom for the main colour, and mystery green for the pattern. I’m really enjoying the coloured stripes on the ribbing, it’s an extra cute detail. I am a little concerned that the green shines through the mushroom between motifs, and the ribbed appearance of the colourwork generally- not sure how I’ll approach finishing to minimise that, but hope that a soak and wash will improve matters.
I’ve added this post to the Unraveled Wednesday linkup, with thanks to Kat for hosting.